Auto Darkening Hoods

Just got new Miller 180 today. Should get new 220 outlet ran in shop tomorrw and begin to practice my mig welding skills. Have two older welding hoods I used with cracker box stick welder. Are the auto darkening hoods worth the $$? Seems like it would be a real nice thing to be able to see exactly what your fixing to weld the instant before the arc occurs.

I guess if you practice enough with the standard hood, like any thing else, you would eventually get good enough to put the gun tip exactly on the spot you intend to strick the arc.

For the occasional welder, I think an auto-darkening hood is an excellent investment. I used a fixed shade hood for a long time, and my welding improved so dramatically when I switched to an auto-darkening hood, you wouldn't have thought the same person was welding.

I too just picked up a MM180 and also picked up the Miller Pro Hobby auto dark hood as well. I'd been borrowing friends' auto darks for a while, and used them in my welding class, and am so glad I finally have my own!

The auto darkening hood that came with my MM175 package was an inexpensive model without any adjustment for darkness and sensitivity. It worked fine for my uses; however after a couple uses the lense popped out and cracked as it hit concrete . It was almost as cheap to buy a new hood as it was the auto-lense! And of course I thought if I spent $$$ I would get much better performance (with adjustable darkness and sensitivity thresholds). But I had trouble finding an auto darkening hood that didn't get confused when welding with sunlight at my back or side (even with the sensitivity adjusted). I don't know if I just got a bad unit or what (the MM dealer told me they have never had a problem with them!).

Short story based on my experience: Get a non-adjustable auto-darkening hood (cheaper route too!) that has a well designed (read: Solid) retainer so the glass won't pop out!

Its like most things you buy really , you buy cheap thats what you get . I bought a cheapy one as had always had the manual flip one , i could'nt belive how easy it was the auto , kinda got lazy and did'nt want to use the manual one , well until the cheapy auto started stuffing up, i could'nt adjust the shade after awhile on it and the it would swich on late , went to a welding shop and had a look at the expensive ones , aahhhh what a difference . the $$$$ ones are awesome but they cost like $300 - $600 to buy , never got one as sold the WIA Mig and moved to NZ from Aussie .

I guess I'm with cruiserhead on the use of the auto dark. I love it for tig, especially for aluminum, as I'm not an expert by anyone's standard. Not as essential for mig or stick for me. For the beginning welder I think the auto dark removes a lot of tension in getting the arc going and the puddle established.

Been welding for 21 years. Have had all of the above. Small, big flip and A/D. For a novice I'd say go with A/D. Mig take all the fun out of welding anyway. It's not hard to lay a pretty good bead and get good penetration anymore. Why not just make it one step easier.

I started out with a medium priced auto darkening fixed @#10. In my workhop or outside did not matter I found it very difficult to see what I was doing. I never got flashed but lost track of the weld right away and had some fancy curved welds nowhere near where I needed them. Talked the wife into letting me upgrade. Looked at alot of high end units and settled on a Miller Elite Boyd Coddington because it had sat on diplay for a few months without interest so they gave it to me for $285. Canadian.
Tell you what I can weld, I can see what I am doing and would drop the cash again in a heart beat. I am doing alot of metal replacement on my BJ42 and still blow the occasional hole but for the most part due to the helmut I am doing a pretty good job compared to when I could not see properly. Once that is done I may only weld a couple of times a year.
What I am trying to say is do DO NOT CHEAP OUT. Other companies put out as good as or better than Miller. Shop around and get a good one, whatever brand. You will not be sorry and if you can find a clearance price you will probably be able to get most of your money back on resale.

I've got both and probably like most experienced welders I'll use my Jackson #12 A/D for TIG and tacking by MIG or if I'm just going to run a few small beads. When I have alot of wire to run or rods to burn I'll use my Jackson 5x4 #12 fixed. Trust me, if you're young and have good eyes use the darkest lens you can get.

I have about 250 dollars in Amazon.com gift certificates and I have been trying to figure out what to get with them.

All I have right now is a cheap HF auto dark helmet and after today I remembered that many mudders say you get what you pay for in a helmet.

If someone with some insight does not mind, I would greatly appreciate them doing a search on amazon for "auto-darkening" and helping me pick from the models listed. There is only one page of helmets in the above 100 dollar range when sorted from high to low price.

There have been several recommendations for Jackson on this thread, but there is only one helmet there and it is about 75 dollars which is not much more than a cheapie somewhere.